This tutorial is all about creating an dark surreal using some free stock images from Deviant Art and i want to introduce some new trick - combining two great free software, Gimp and IrfanView. The composition is quite simple, but with a little inspiration you can create something really nice.

In this tutorial, i want to introduce Irfan View, one of the most awesome free graphic viewer in the net. IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. I'll combine Gimp and Irfan View, so this is one of my new experiment and i hope you enjoy this one. Step 1

First, open up the grass image. We need an image with really nice grass. The image stock from wanderingsoul-stox is amazing and perfect for this piece.

Step 2

Now you are going to delete the sky. Select the upper part of the grass image. Do this using the Rectangular Select Tool. Add alpha selection to it. Then hit button Del to clear the part.

Save the image as "grass.png".

Step 4

Open new document. 1024 x 768 in potrait style.

Step 5

Next, i will use fantasy landscape bg 5 from joannastar-stock..This is the base image for this project. Click HERE to get the image. Then drag the image to the document.

Step 6

Import the grass image into the document.

Step 7

Next, retouch the grass and make sure the images blend in nicely. You need to erase upper part of the grass to make the transition between background and grass look more interesting.

Step 8

Now you need to import another image. I chose a castle picture from ElizaTibbits-Stock. Download it HERE. Before you import the image you will have to first cut the image.

After you finish cutting the castle image, position it into place.

Then, we will use layer mask to hide some part of the castle. Make sure to use soft black brush at the layer mask.

Step 9

Now I will add some adjustments to the image. Go to Color > Brightness and Contrast. I'll use value -19 for brightness and 5 for contrast.

Step 10

Next I'll use black and white: flock of birds stockphoto from Lost and Taken. You can download the image HERE. Move it into your document.

Reduce its size. Make the flock of bird picture little bit smaller.

Step 11

Then change the layer mode to multiply.

Step 12

Erase some part of the image.

Then, move the image to the left.

Step 13: ADDING MORE ELEMENT

Now we're going to begin the more tedious part. I have add many thing in the document to make it more interesting. It's depend on your on choices. Some people might say that it look crowd but i like this composition.

Please use your own image choices for this step..so i'll left the option for the image link. Otherwise, your result would look exactly like mine, which I don't think you want.

Step 14

Now you need to add the model. The image I used was photographed by *Katanaz-Stock. Cut the woman and save it as .png.

Step 15

Drag the woman picture into the document.

Step 16

Now you will add some adjustments to the image. Go to Color > Brightness and Contrast. I'll use value 28 for brightness and 12 for contrast.

Step 17

Duplicate the woman layer and change the layer mode to Overlay

Use layer mask to hide some part between the girl and the grass..

Step 18

After that,flatten the image. I'll save it as JPG. Close Gimp and the next step is i'll open the JPG in Irfan View.

Step 20

This step is one of the most important tricks in this tutorial.

Now open the image in IrfanView.

Step 21

Go to Effect> Adobe 8BF Filters> Topaz Adjust.

use the Vibrance Effect and Clarify, these will make the image more interesting.

After that,save again as JPG.

Step 22

Open again the image in Gimp. Desatured the image. Go to Color> Desature.

Step 23

You will notice that our image is too dark. Now it's time to add some adjustments to the "background" layer to make it more lighter. Go to Color > Curves. Use the values in the pictures. Click for larger view.

Step 24

I want to add some color effect to this dark image. Select gradient tool, Radial for the shape, purple for the color and low the opacity to 50. Click the image for larger view.

Create new layer. Use the blend tool.

Step 25

Change the layer mode to Screen.

Create new layer and use other color like yellow, dont forget to change the layer mode to Screen.

Step 26

Next steps is create a new layer,and fill it with black.Go to Light and Shadow > Lens Flare.

Step 27

Put the lens Flare like the image below..Change the layer mod to Screen.You will notice that the layer is too bright, there is too much gray.

Step 28

So go to Colors>Levels. Then just change the Input Levels to 50, 1, 255.

Step 29

Duplicate the lens flare for another light effect.Put it somewhere you like..

Step 30 : Light Beam.

Create a new layer called Light Line-this is for the light beam. Use the Rectangle select tool to draw a rectangle.

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